The NCAA, which represents some 1,100 schools and more than 500,000 athletes, is no stranger to lawsuits. It has been in court off and on since the early 1980s defending the amateur athlete model at the heart of college sports.
But the organization has suffered a string of losses in court, highlighted by a 9-0 decision from the Supreme Court in 2021 in which justices ruled that the NCAA cannot limit education-related benefits colleges offer their athletes. In a blistering concurring opinion in the case, Justice Brett Kavanaugh suggested the organization may be violating antitrust law.
House vs. the NCAA is a class-action lawsuit in the Northern District of California before federal Judge Claudia Wilken, whose previous rulings in NCAA cases paved the way for college athletes to profit from their fame and for schools to direct more money into their hands.
Legal experts had warned that an NCAA loss in this case would upend college athletics as we know it and they were right. The NCAA and the nation's biggest conferences decided in May to settle the allegations for $2.8 billion and move toward some form of athlete revenue-sharing of all those billions from television deals for big-time college football and March Madness basketball.
The House case settlement was expected to potentially settle some other antitrust claims, including:
— A case in California whose plaintiffs include Duke football player Dewayne Carter, TCU basketball player Sedona Prince and Stanford soccer player Nya Harrison. It seeks to bar the NCAA from enforcing any rules that prohibit athlete compensation.
— Hubbard vs. the NCAA, which seeks damages for athletes who were denied education-related stipends that were the result of the Alston case. The plaintiffs include former Oklahoma State running back Chuba Hubbard and former Auburn track athlete Keira McCarrell, and the lawsuit seeks triple damages for all current and former Division I athletes as far back as 2018.
— A similar lawsuit seeking to lift NCAA rules on compensation from schools and conferences filed in federal court by former Colorado football player Alex Fontenot in November 2023. A judge has ruled the case should remain in Colorado.
The biggest question for the NCAA should the House settlement be approved is securing some assurance from Congress that it will not be dragged back into court over the same issues by future college athletes. In July, for example, more than a dozen former college basketball players sued the NCAA and the major conferences for unspecified damages, they are profiting from the unauthorized use of their names, images and likenesses (NIL) in promoting and monetizing the March Madness tournament.
There are multiple issues in front of the National Labor Relations Board, including a complaint against USC and the Pac-12; a unionization effort by the men's basketball team at Dartmouth; an unfair labor complaint against Notre Dame; and a federal lawsuit in Pennsylvania filed by former Villanova football player Trey Johnson.
All of it could lead to college athletes being granted employee status, though court battles are assured. Johnson and others are seeking hourly wages similar to those earned in work-study programs. The Dartmouth team voted 13-2 to form a union, though many steps are ahead including a potential legal fight.
The NCAA and its member schools have insisted they do not consider athletes employees who can collectively bargain for pay and benefits.
No. The attorneys general of Tennessee and Virginia filed a federal lawsuit in the Eastern District of Tennessee that challenged the NCAA’s NIL rules after it was revealed the University of Tennessee was among schools facing potential infractions penalties. A judge Feb. 23 granted a preliminary injunction against the NIL rules and said they likely violate antitrust law.
Even though the NCAA in recent years had eased some of its transfer limits, multiple states and the Justice Department went to court earlier this year, saying the NCAA's one-year delay in the eligibility of undergraduate, second-time transfers in Division I violates antitrust law. In May, the NCAA and the states announced a settlement allowing athletes to be immediately eligible to play no matter how many times they transfer and offer some who were sidelined an extra year of eligibility.
AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/college-football
FILE - Kansas players Russell Robinson (3), Mario Chalmers (15) Brady Morningstar, rear, and Sherron Collins, right, celebrate their 75-68 victory over Memphis in the the championship at the NCAA college basketball Final Four, Monday, April 7, 2008, in San Antonio. Kansas stars Mario Chalmers and Sherron Collins are among 16 former men’s college basketball players who have sued the NCAA and multiple conferences, claiming they are profiting from the unauthorized use of their names, images and likenesses in promoting and monetizing the March Madness tournament. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
FILE - In this April 25, 2018, file photo, the NCAA headquarters is shown in Indianapolis. Houston Christian University's U.S. district court case might be just the beginning of the challenges the NCAA and the major conferences will face as they sort out how their schools will be able to potentially pay athletes. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings, File)
LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Saturday that he is scrapping a controversial Conservative policy to deport asylum-seekers to Rwanda.
“The Rwanda scheme was dead and buried before it started,” Starmer said in his first news conference. “It’s never acted as a deterrent. Almost the opposite.”
The move was one of Starmer’s first acts in office, though it was widely expected. He had said during his campaign that he would ditch the plan that has cost hundreds of millions of dollars, but never taken flight.
Starmer made the announcement after holding his first Cabinet meeting at 10 Downing St., the day after his Labour Party’s landslide victory overturned 14 years of Conservative rule.
The Rwanda plan was one of the showcase policies of former Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to try to curb migrants from making dangerous English Channel crossings.
But it was beset with challenges over human rights issues and never managed to deport a single person despite spending hundreds of millions of dollars in a pact with the east African nation.
Suella Braverman, a Conservative hard liner on immigration who is a possible contender to replace Sunak as party leader, was critical of Starmer’s anticipated plan to end the Rwanda deal.
“Years of hard work, acts of Parliament, millions of pounds been spent on a scheme which had it been delivered properly would have worked,” she said Saturday before he made the announcement.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
LONDON (AP) — Prime Minister Keir Starmer held his first Cabinet meeting Saturday as his new government takes on the massive challenge of fixing a heap of domestic woes and winning over a public weary from years of austerity, political chaos and a battered economy.
Starmer welcomed the new ministers around the table at 10 Downing St., saying it had been the honor of his life to be asked by King Charles III to form a government in a ceremony that officially elevated him to prime minister.
“We have a huge amount of work to do, so now we get on with our work,” he said.
Starmer’s Labour Party delivered the biggest blow to the Conservatives in their two-century history Friday in a landslide victory on a platform of change.
Among a raft of problems they face are boosting a sluggish economy, fixing a broken health care system, and restoring trust in government.
“Just because Labour won a big landslide doesn’t mean all the problems that the Conservative government has faced has gone away,” said Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London.
In his first remarks as prime minister Friday after the meeting “kissing of hands” ceremony with Charles at Buckingham Palace, Starmer said he would get to work immediately, though he cautioned it would take some time to show results.,
“Changing a country is not like flicking a switch,” he said as enthusiastic supporters cheered him outside his new official residence at 10 Downing. “This will take a while. But have no doubt that the work of change begins — immediately.”
He will have a busy schedule following the six-week campaign crossing the four nations of the U.K.
He will travel to Washington next week for a NATO meeting and will host the European Political Community summit July 18, the day after the state opening of Parliament and the King's Speech, which sets out the new government's agenda.
Starmer singled out several of the big items Friday, such as fixing the revered but hobbled National Health Service and securing its borders, a reference a larger global problem across Europe and the U.S. of absorbing an influx of migrants fleeing war, poverty as well as drought, heat waves and floods attributed to climate change.
Conservatives struggled to contain the flow of migrants arriving across the English Channel, failing to live up to ex-Prime Minister’s Rishi Sunak’s pledge to “stop the boats.”
Starmer has said he will scrap the Conservatives controversial plan to deport asylum-seekers to Rwanda. The plan had cost hundreds of millions of pounds (dollars) without a single flight taking off.
“Labour is going to need to find a solution to the small boats coming across the channel,” Bale said. “It’s going to ditch the Rwanda scheme, but it’s going to have to come up with other solutions to deal with that particular problem.”
Suella Braverman, a Conservative hard liner on immigration who is a possible contender to replace Sunak as party leader, criticized Starmer's plan to end the Rwanda pact.
“Years of hard work, acts of Parliament, millions of pounds been spent on a scheme which had it been delivered properly would have worked," she said Saturday. "There are big problems on the horizon which will be I’m afraid caused by Keir Starmer.”
Starmer's Cabinet is also getting to work.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy was to begin his first international trip Saturday to meet counterparts in Germany, Poland and Sweden to reinforce the importance of their relationship.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said he would open new negotiations next week with NHS doctors at the start of their career who have staged a series of multi-day strikes. The pay dispute has exacerbated the long wait for appointments that have become a hallmark of the NHS's problems.
FILE - Labour Party leader Keir Starmer smiles as he speaks to his supporters at the Tate Modern in London, Friday, July 5, 2024. After a few hours of sleep to shake off a night of celebration and an audience with the king, Keir Starmer will step through the front door of 10 Downing St. for the first time as prime minister on Friday. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)
Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer outside 10 Downing Street in London, Friday, July 5, 2024 after returning from seeing King Charles III where he was asked to form a government. Starmer's Labour Party swept to power Friday after more than a decade in opposition, as a jaded electorate handed the party a landslide victory — but also a mammoth task of reinvigorating a stagnant economy and dispirited nation. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
